Casting: Mirren, Welliver, Dern, Blackburn

Collateral BeautyHelen Mirren is in negotiations to join Will Smith in the drama “Collateral Beauty” for New Line. David Frankel is taking over for Alfonso Gomez-Rejon as helmer. Shooting kicks off early next year in New York City.

Allan Loeb penned the script about a Manhattan advertising executive (Smith) who experiences a personal tragedy. When his colleagues devise an unconventional plan to break him out of his depression, it ends up backfiring. [Source: The Wrap]

Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, Affleck plays the son of a prominent police captain who enters a world of organized crime that takes him from Boston to Florida and Havana. Welliver will play Tim Hickey, his boss and mentor. [Source: The Wrap]

Class RankBruce Dern and Kristin Chenoweth have joined the indie comedy “Class Rank” for SSS Entertainment and Single Cell Pictures’ Class Rank. Eric Stoltz helms from a script by Ben August.

The story follows two teenagers and two grandparents whose worlds are upended when love walks in the door. Olivia Holt, Skyler Gisondo, Kathleen Chalfant, Nick Krause and Peter Maloney also star. [Source: Deadline]

The story follows ten lost souls who skip across ten periods in New York City history, slipping in and out of one another’s arms and beds. Nolan Gerard Funk, Sam Underwood and Al Calderon also star and filming is now underway in New York. [Source: Variety]